Skilled Trades Request for Partnership

The Skilled Trades RFP has now closed and we are no longer accepting applications.

“Skilled trades” refer to occupations that require specialized training and technical expertise in areas such as construction, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and welding. A new analysis shows the critical role that skilled trades play in Hawaiʻi’s economy and their impact on the state’s infrastructure development, maintenance, and repair today and into the future.

In total, the trades comprise 8 percent of the state workforce with 58,000 jobs, a number projected to exceed 75,000 by 2028. The average salary for these jobs is $67,000 and most offer on-the-job training that provides upward mobility for students that enter the trades right after high school. This is also a sector with a growing number of jobs that provides skills transferable to new industries like clean energy.

Despite the promise, the trades face real challenges right now as the current workforce ages and young people are often academically or emotionally unprepared for the road ahead. The Harold K.L. Castle Foundation is seeking community-based nonprofit partners, trade and membership associations, employers and training institutions that work in at least one of the skilled trades referenced in the report.

The goal behind this funding request is two-fold:

• Increase access of young, diverse tradespeople, particularly from underrepresented and rural communities
• Build sustainable infrastructure to cultivate more job-ready tradespeople

Interested organizations should:

• identify the specific skilled trade(s)
• the goal(s) of the project / challenge you would like to address
• create a detailed workplan and budget
• create a set of outcomes that illustrate what success looks like

This is an opportunity for partners to test new recruitment strategies, design key supports that help more young people to complete the training or forge stronger relationships with select community colleges and/or high schools. Perhaps you want to increase female representation in a specific trade. Or test a new way of helping participants complete training by covering upfront expenses or to secure childcare.

Maybe you have a successful training model that you want to expand to a new region of the state, a new trade or even to create a pre-apprenticeship program that connects to a formal apprenticeship model. Some regions, for example, employ early college, industry certifications and paid internships to effectively nudge more young people into the trades and these can be effective strategies to adapt and employ.

In short, we encourage you to use this funding opportunity to dream big and be bold! This funding opportunity is not meant to support business as usual.

Application Instructions
Applications are no longer being accepted

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